The Rural Health Care (RHC) Program has a cap of $400 million per funding year to provide support for telecommunications and broadband services for eligible healthcare providers through the Telecommunications (Telecom) and Healthcare Connect Fund (HCF) Programs. Of the $400 million in funding, up to $150 million per funding year is available to support upfront payments and multi-year commitments under the HCF Program. Annual administrative expenses, representing the amount necessary for USAC to administer the RHC Program, are deducted from the annual cap to determine the total funding available per funding year.

For FY2016, USAC is now reporting "Total Funding Requests Received," and "Total Amount of Qualifying Funding Requests," instead of solely reporting on the "Commitment Requests Received" as done previously. "Total Funding Requests Received" more accurately reflects the original total funding amount as requested by applicants, and "Total Amount of Qualifying Funding Requests" describes the total qualifying funding after adjustments have been made by USAC.

The total dollar value of qualifying funding requests for March 1 – August 31, 2016 was $133,044,983. Because this dollar amount was lower than the total amount available for the RHC Program for the funding year, qualifying funding requests submitted during that time will receive 100% funding.

The total dollar value of qualifying funding requests for the September 1 – November 30, 2016 filing window period was $274,725,249. Because this dollar amount exceeded the total amount available for the RHC Program at the beginning of that filing window period, each qualifying funding request submitted during that time will receive a pro-rated amount of 92.5% of the qualifying funding request.

*Includes the FY2016 initial filing window period (March 1, 2016 – June 1, 2016) and the time period from June 2, 2016 – August 31, 2016.

**The $400M Rural Health Care (RHC) Program cap was reduced by approximately $12.7M in administrative expenses, representing the total amount of funding necessary for USAC to administer the RHC Program for FY2016.

***The pro-rata factor is based on the Total Amount of Qualifying Funding Requests of $274,725,249, which exceeds $254,255,017 (i.e., the total RHC Program funding available at the beginning of the September 1 – November 30 filing window period).

FY2016 Funding Information Glossary of Terms

RHC Program Funding Available – RHC Program Funding Available for the time period before the Sept. 1 – Nov. 30, 2016 Filing Window Period is the total amount of funding available for the RHC Program for FY2016, which is calculated by subtracting the administrative expenses from the RHC Program’s $400 million cap. For the Sept. 1 – Nov. 30, 2016 Filing Window Period, RHC Program Funding Available was calculated by subtracting the Total Amount of Qualifying Funding Requests before the Sept. 1 – Nov. 30, 2016 Filing Window Period from RHC Program Funding Available at the start of that same time period.

Total Funding Requests Received – Total amount of all original funding requests as submitted by applicants, before USAC reviews and makes adjustments.

Total Amount of Qualifying Funding Requests – Total demand for RHC Program funding from requests received during the two time periods after USAC review. This total includes the sum of Commitments Pending, Commitments Made, and Reserve. If the Total Amount of Qualifying Funding Requestsin the filing window period exceeds the RHC Program Funding Available for the filing window period, all funding requests filed within the filing window period will be prorated, based on the Total Amount of Qualifying Funding Requestsreceived during the filing window period. See the FY2016 Filing Window page.

Commitments Pending – Total amount of approved funding requests that are waiting to be committed.

Commitments Made – Total amount of approved funding requests that have been committed.

Reserve – Sum of total amount reserved for funding requests that require further review, and total amount of funding requests that have been denied and subsequently appealed or could potentially be appealed.

Pro-Rata Factor – The percentage of each qualifying funding request that will be approved for commitment. This percentage is applied to funding requests after they have been reviewed by USAC, which may have resulted in prior adjustments. This percentage is calculated by dividing the RHC Program Funding Available by the Total Amount of Qualifying Funding Requests for a filing window period, when the Total Amount of Qualifying Funding Requests exceeds the RHC Program Funding Available.

Pro-rata Factor for FY2016

All qualifying FY2016 funding requests received by the close of the September 1 – November 30 filing window period will be pro-rated at 92.5% (reduction of 7.5%). An explanation of how the pro-rata factor was calculated is below.

The exact amount of funding each qualifying funding request will receive is detailed in each funding commitment letter issued beginning April 10, 2017.

The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) is dedicated to achieving universal service. As a not-for-profit corporation designated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), we administer the $10 billion Universal Service Fund. With the guidance of the FCC policy, we collect and deliver funding through four programs that are focused specifically on places where broadband and connectivity needs are acute.